Vice Minister Pan is great!

"All manner of contradiction can be transferred elsewhere, except for pollution, because all of us have the misfortune of living on one planet." Well put! It is truly praiseworthy that your website has published this article. Now this is a real dialogue.

Each time I hear Pan Yue's name, I feel inexplicable admiration and emotion. It is this government official, who to me seems more like a scholar, who makes us full confidence about the future prospects of the environment. Everything he says and does points directly to the key aspects of China's environmental dilemmas. We are fortunate to have a high official of this sort who truly desires to take responsibility for the Chinese people.

Support Pan Yue

He is the official who does act like an official, with strong complex of scholar-bureaucrat who appeals for the people and devotes himself for the country. So what he does always invites different kinds of controversies.

Maybe you are right, the root of the problem is the capitalist system

Perhaps I am being superficial, but if a certain type of social system can really have an effect on the environment, if China is really treading the so-called "green path", how can China's environment be in such bad shape? China has already become the processing plant of all nations worldwide. Yet the government's method of dealing with the environmental pollution this causes is not only to neglect its management, but also to give it a unique form of special treatment. The majority of Chinese land suitable for agriculture has been turned into factory and warehouse space. On the one hand, we constantly praise the targets that environmental work has met; on the other hand, we continue to pollute and destroy the environment. If we find temporary solutions but don't get to the root of the problem, is that acceptable? And as for the government's many "construction projects" of late, the Three Gorges dam, the south-to-north water diversion project...I really do not dare compliment them. Anyone with a little bit of sense knows that in the end, these construction projects are about prioritizing either environmental sustainability or temporary resource crises. And the side-effects of these construction projects by far exceed their true value, yet the nation doesn't mention even a word about it. How can one explain this? Maybe you are right, the root of the problem is the capitalist system. This also applies to China.

Ecological colonizers

Because our government is short-sighted, it continuously makes a great effort to welcome in "ecological colonizers", giving multinational businesses all manner of favorable conditions to come to China and set up high energy consuming industries. Furthermore, when these industries, which strictly adhere to environmental laws in their home countries, come to China, they disregard Chinese environmental law and contaminate at will, in many places even becoming the main source of pollution. When the time comes for us to wake up to the "ecological colonizers", should we demand "ecological compensation" from them? Will we still want it back? How should we calculate the ecological damage due to the transfer of industry that industrialized nations have caused towards developing nations?

Environmental diplomacy

Environmental diplomacy is clearly of especial importance in a time when environmental issues are becoming globalized. I suggest that Vice Minister Pan go abroad to exchange ideas and negotiate with environment officials worldwide. China's environmental dilemmas are produced collectively by the global community, so of course we also need international assistance and support.

China can only tread its own path

China's population is huge, and its resources by comparison relatively scarce. The environment is vulnerable, and quite a large part of the population has a living standard that is either below the poverty line or only meets basic needs. Therefore, if you want to implement rapid economic growth, sacrificing the environment is inevitable. Either you sacrifice your own country's environment or the environment of other countries. In my opinion, if you really want to resolve environmental problems, you have to strengthen the international framework of environmental conservation. This is the only effective path. At the same time, industrialized nations must provide more assistance to environmental conservation in developing nations. Because the origins of accumulated wealth in industrialized nations are based on the large-scale, global destruction of the environment in the past, this cost has to be taken into account.

Environmental problems need a global perspective for their solution

The Chinese population is very large, and natural resources are scarce by comparison. The environment is frgaile, and the bulk of the population lives at an impoverished or barely subsistence level. It's necessary therefore to implement top-speed economic growth, and sacrificing the environment is unavoidable. We sacrifice our own country's environment, as we sacrifice the environment of other countries. I believe that if one really wants to solve environmental problems, one must truly strengthen the framework of international protection. This is the only effective way. At the same time, developed countries must offer developing countries more aid for environmental protection. Because these developed countries' original financial accumulation all came through past, large-scale destruction of the global environment, this account must be calculated.

Those who act first are strongest

This is really a world where those who act first are strongest. At a time when we had yet to perceive envrionmental problems, industrialized nations abused natural resources worldwide. Then they cleaned up their own countries, transferring pollution to poor developing nations, yet without telling these nations that this pollution would imperil later generations. Then they scolded us, scolded us for the environmental threat we are generating for the world. Do we really want to destroy the environment? Don't we like blue skies and green trees? Yet we have to make a living! Fortunately, God is just, "everyone has the misfortune of living on just one planet". Even sand storms can blast over to the United States, and that's great!

Ecological civilization

"Ecological civilization" really is a nice catch-phrase. Let's add to it, and let the aware thinkers among us make an effort to advocate it...